Implications for practice and research

Calcium supplements increase cardiovascular risk.

The role of calcium supplements in the management of osteoporosis should be reconsidered.

Context

In 2008, a randomised controlled trial (RCT) suggested that calcium supplements might increase the risk of cardiovascular
events.1 Subsequent meta-analyses of RCTs examining calcium monotherapy and calcium and vitamin D confirmed these findings. In a pooled
analysis of 13 RCTs of calcium with or without vitamin D (n=29 277) including 1391 patients with myocardial infarction (MI)
or stroke,2 calcium increased the risk of MI by 25% and stroke by 15–20%. Xiao and colleagues explored this issue in the observational
National Institutes of Health-American …